When Comet ISON buzzes the Earth in 2013, it could be brighter than the moon

Comet ISON C/2012 S1 buzzes the Earth in 2013, could be brighter than the moon

The Remanzacco Observatory has announced that according to their calculations a new comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) will create a spectacular show in late 2013 and early 2014, likely becoming visible to the naked eye and during the day, making it brighter than the moon.

“Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) will get to within 0.012AU of the Sun (extremely close) at the end of November 2013 and then to ~0.4AU from Earth at the beginning of January 2014!” Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero & Nick Howes wrote in a joint statement on the Remanzacco blog.

An AU, short for Astronomical Unit, measures 149 597 871 kilometres or the approximate distance from the Earth to the Sun.

“According to its orbit, this comet might become a naked-eye object in the period November 2013 – January 2014,” the blog post continued.

The comet would flare up as in nears the sun and cause a lightshow that would be visible even in daylight.

“The most exciting aspect of this new comet concerns its preliminary orbit, which bears a striking resemblance to that of the ‘Great Comet of 1680,'” Joe Rao wrote on Space.com “That comet put on a dazzling show; it was glimpsed in daylight and later, as it moved away from the sun, it threw off a brilliantly long tail that stretched up from the western twilight sky after sunset like a narrow searchlight beam for some 70 degrees of arc. (A person’s clenched fist, held at arm’s length, covers roughly 10 degrees of sky.)”

Rao posits that the similarities between ISON and the Great Comet could imply that they are very similar or even the same stellar object.

“I expect that it’ll at least be of considerable interest to comet observers, much as C/2006 P1 was,” Gray wrote. “But estimating comet brightnesses a year ahead of time is about like asking who’s going to win the World Series next year. It could be astonishingly bright, or it could fizzle.”

The excitement over ISON may recall similar the type of hype for the comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 or the comet Comet McNaught when it appeared in 1965. At that time, McNaught was brighter than Venus.